Jared Knapp Smith

Jared Knapp Smith (1849–1897) became a physician and carried on his father's medical practice. He was shot dead on September 24, 1897. It was suspected to be in retaliation for ordering patients suspected of leprosy to have tests that might send them to exile in Kalaupapa. Similar tensions had ignited the Leper War on Kaua'i four years earlier. His brother's former law partner Kinney sailed to Kauaʻi island and was appointed special prosecutor. A native Hawaiian suspect Kapea Kaʻahea was arrested, tried on November 13, 1897, and found guilty of murder in the first degree.

Instead of waiting for next scheduled term of the circuit court, a special session had been called. Honolulu English-language newspapers said "there seems no doubt of the guilt of the chief prisoner" even before the trial. The objections brought to the Supreme Court of Hawaii were quickly rejected on February 3, 1898. Kapea was hanged on April 11, 1898. The rushed nature of the prosecution was thought to be an attempt to show the United States that the government was in firm control. Only a few months later in July 1898, the Newlands Resolution would annex the islands. Of the four executions for capital punishment between 1889 and 1903 in Hawaii, all four were of non-whites within a four-month period.